ARMING THE ARSONISTS:
ISRAEL, HAMAS AND THE P.L.O.

By Louis Rene Beres

Professor, Department of Political Science, Purdue University

In his timely work, The Firebugs, Swiss playwright Max Frisch tells the distressing story of
Gottlieb Biedermann, a cautious businessman who contends with an epidemic of arson by
implementing a deadly series of self-deceptions. Ultimately, Biedermann invites the arsonists into
his home, lodges them, feeds them a sumptuous dinner, and even provides them with matches.
Not surprisingly, the play ends, for Biedermann, on an incendiary note. It also ends, predictably,
with a pathetic and revolting disclaimer from an academic "expert" who has counseled appeasement all along.

There is an enormously important lesson here for present-day Israel, especially after the latest
Tel-Aviv Purim bombing. Faced with an epidemic of "arson" from militant Islamic terrorists,
Jerusalem has responded exactly like the playwright's weak and foolish character. Asking the
terrorists into Israel's very "home," because it believes that entreaty and capitulation are
preferable to courage and struggle, the Government of Israel, too, is prepared even to help light
the fuse. Pretending that Hamas and P.L.O. are truly distinct and discrete - a delusionary pretense
that fits comfortably with the simple polarities favored by so many Israeli experts, professors and
pundits - Prime Minister Netanyahu still looks to his "Palestinian partners" for Israel's security and
survival. It should come as a surprise to no one, therefore, that "arson" has become a growing
problem for Israel, one that may soon culminate in chemical, biological or even nuclear terrorism.

To a significant extent, the terrible harm that has been done by Netanyahu's immediate
predecessors is done and cannot be undone. Indeed, by creating the conditions whereby each
successive act of anti-Israel terrorism compelled a groveling Government to reaffirm its
commitment to the so-called Peace Process, Messrs. Rabin and Peres created a lose-lose
scenario. Should Netanyahu now continue with the policy of incremental surrenders, the enemies
of Israel will proceed with their carefully constructed strategy of attrition and annihilation. If,
however, Netanyahu should now stand firm, refusing further Arab demands for Israel's auto-
destruction, Yasser Arafat - recently celebrated at the White House - will authorize increasingly
murderous attacks on Jewish women and children.

What, then, should be done? It is time to be frank! For Israel, this Peace Process was destined to
fail. Founded upon a series of false assumptions and incomprehensibly unreasonable expectations,
it has always been an Arab Trojan Horse leading Israel toward certain disaster. Taken together
with ongoing and still planned surrenders of vital territories to enemy states, further concessions
to Hamas/P.L.O. will threaten Third Temple Commonwealth survival. For those who still believe
that Hamas is an enemy of P.L.O., it is time to acknowledge the former's primary policy
statement: "The P.L.O. is among the closest to Hamas, for it constitutes a father, a brother, a
relative, a friend. Can a Muslinm turn away from his father, a brother, a relative or his friend?
Our homeland is one, our calamity is one, our destiny is one and our enemy is common to both of
us."

Jerusalem's "Palestinian partners" are already at the fuse. As long as their Trojan Horse remains
within Israel's gates, the P.L.O. will make it impossible for Israel to do what is needed to survive.
In this connection, Arafat fully intends to keep all of his genocidal promises to the Jewish State.

On January 30, 1996, speaking to forty Arab diplomats at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Arafat's
topic was "The Impending Total Collapse of Israel." Said Arafat: "We Palestinians will take over
everything, including all of Jerusalem../..../..All the rich Jews who will get compensation will travel to
America../..../..We of the P.L.O. will now concentrate all our efforts on splitting Israel psychologically
into two camps. Within five years we will have six to seven million Arabs living on the West
Bank and in Jerusalem../..../..You understand that we plan to eliminate the State of Israel and to
establish a purely Palestinian State../..../..I have no use for Jews; they are and remain Jews."

At the end of The Firebugs, in the closing moments of the play, as the sky reddens from fire, the
all-too-familiar "professor," the expert, exclaims:

I can no longer be silent. Cognizant of the events now transpiring, whose evil nature must be
readily apparent, the undersigned submits to the authorities the subsequent statement../..../..(Amid the
shrieking of sirens, he reads an involved statement, of which no one understands a word. Dogs
howl. Bells ring. There is the scream of departing sirens and the crackling of flames. The
Professor hands Biedermann a paper.) I disassociate myself!

There is a very important lesson here for Israel. The Jewish State must cease immediately to arm
the arsonists. The Jewish State must cease immediately to follow the armchair academic
"strategists" who have devised and handed over the blueprints for arson. The citizens of Israel
should recall immediately the Charter of Hamas: "I swear by that who holds in His Hands the
Soul of Muhammad! I indeed wish to go to war for the sake of Allah! I will assault and kill,
assault and kill, assault and kill."

The citizens of Israel should read immediately The Firebugs.

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Louis Rene Beres (Ph.D., Princeton, 1971) happens to be a professor, but is assuredly not an
"expert." He was also born in Switzerland, in Zurich, hometown of the playwright Max Frisch.